City's supplies of Cristal champagne run dry

Parties may be BYOC

ZANTO PEABODY, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle |
January 21, 2004

Big ballers and shot callers headed to Houston might want to pack a few extra bottles of Cristal, the champagne of choice for the hip hoperati.

Rappers and athletes planning gatherings in Houston for the Super Bowl have cleared local distributors' shelves of the classy bubbly, which sells for $150 to $600 or more per bottle.

By Tuesday afternoon, clerks at Spec's, Houston's largest liquor seller, say they had sold out because of orders from party planners. Bars downtown had begun ordering from distributors in Austin and in Louisiana in hopes of stocking up before next week.

"It is the drink that is so popular with rappers," Alani said. "You can't find it anywhere. We are going far to make sure we don't run out."

The situation could be a crisis in the making, with Jay-Z, P. Diddy and Snoop Dogg in town at the same time, all of them hosting parties.

Z, Diddy and Dogg are three of hip hop's biggest names and among the biggest promoters of Cristal, which was created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II. Continuously dropping the name in their songs, they are to Cristal what Sex and the City is to shoe designer Manolo Blahnik.

According to Americanbrandstand.com, a Web site that tracks product mentions in music, Cristal was the drink name most often uttered in popular music in 2003.

Jay-Z, Houston's newest resident high roller, referred to the prestige of Cristal in his song Excuse Me Miss.

"You can't even drink Crist-OWL on this one," Jay-Z said, contrasting a mangled pronunciation by other rap artists with the meticulously proper way he says it. "You gotta drink Crist-ALL."

Snoop Dogg was just one of many hip hop pros who showcased a bottle of the stuff in his refrigerator on MTV's Cribs.

And P. Diddy is reputed to be the biggest Cristal buyer anywhere.

Bennett Glazer, CEO of Glazer's Distributors, said he has asked the importers of Cristal for more cases to send to Houston. Cristal is always in high demand, he said, but recently Houston-area retailers have flooded Glazer's with orders for more.

"It's in the songs, and that's what they want," Glazer said.

An employee at Champagne Louis Roederer, the French house that makes Cristal, would not give her name, but she said demand for the champagne has been increasing while the company's capacity to produce has stayed the same; the available vineyards in Champagne, France, are extremely limited.